Clearing the Blockage: The Airplane Lavatory Flowline Case
Third Party International, Inc.
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A System on the Brink
Jake leaned against the railing overlooking the production floor, watching the chaos unfold below. He had been the Supply Chain Manager at LavaTech Interiors for two years, and yet, no matter how many meetings, process changes, or supplier audits they conducted, one issue remained: the lavatory flowline was a bottleneck.
Orders were backed up. The assembly teams were constantly waiting for parts. The shipping schedule was a mess. And now, yet another delay had landed on his desk.
“We’re slipping on our commitments again,” his boss, Kari, had said that morning. “The airline isn’t happy. If we don’t get this under control, they’ll start looking elsewhere.”
Jake had heard the same warning before, but this time, it wasn’t just talk. The customer had given them six weeks to improve lead times—or else.
Something had to change.
The Problem Beneath the Problem
That afternoon, Jake called a meeting with his team.
“We need to get real about what’s causing these delays,” he said, looking around the table. “I don’t want to hear that it’s ‘just supply chain issues.’ Where’s the actual constraint?”
Mark, the Production Supervisor, leaned forward. “Honestly? It’s the lav assembly process. We’re getting incomplete kits from suppliers, which means we’re constantly stopping and starting. We spend hours looking for missing parts, and by the time we get what we need, we’re already behind.”
Jake frowned. “So why aren’t suppliers sending complete kits?”
“Because,” chimed in Lisa from Procurement, “we’re prioritizing cost over flow. We’re buying components in bulk at different times, so kits arrive incomplete. It saves a little money upfront, but it’s killing our efficiency.”
Jake sat back. They had been optimizing for cost per part, not for system flow.
Rethinking the Flow
Enter Third Party International.
Jake had worked with them before, and they specialized in solving exactly these kinds of bottleneck issues. When their lead consultant, Steve, arrived on-site, he didn’t waste any time.
“Show me the flowline,” he said.
As they walked through the production floor, Steve observed the disjointed workstations, the constant pausing, and the carts full of half-assembled lavatories waiting for missing components.
“You’re not running a flowline,” Steve said finally. “You’re running a scavenger hunt.”
Jake sighed. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Steve nodded. “Alright. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
Steve knew that meetings and spreadsheets weren’t going to solve this problem. Real change happens on the floor, not in a conference room. That’s why the TPI consultant didn’t waste any time, he went straight to the assembly line.
Hands On Leadership
Instead of sitting in an office analyzing reports, the Steve got directly involved with the workers on the line. He listened to their frustrations, observed the bottlenecks firsthand, and worked alongside them to understand the real issues. This built trust and showed the team that improvement wasn’t just another top down initiative, it was happening with them, not to them.
Steve established a daily stand up meeting, bringing together key stakeholders:
This short, focused meeting transformed problem resolution from a slow, reactive process into an immediate, coordinated effort. Issues were identified in real-time, assigned for follow-up, and quickly addressed. What used to take weeks of back-and-forth emails was now solved in a single morning discussion.
Reimagining the Production Line for Efficiency
Steve worked closely with the manufacturing engineering technician and the manufacturing manager to design a new assembly line layout that would serve as a prototype for the future facility. The goal was clear: eliminate wasted motion, improve part visibility, and create a true flowline instead of a disjointed batch process.
Optimized Material Staging & New Equipment
Addressing Quality Issues at the Source
The TPI led team also turned their attention to subassembly quality problems coming from the overseas facility.
Breaking the Bottleneck
Within a few months, the results were undeniable:
For the first time in months, Jake wasn’t getting escalation emails about late shipments.
More importantly, his team wasn’t fighting fires every day. They had control over the process.
At the next leadership meeting, Kari gave him a rare nod of approval. “This is a different operation than it was 3 months ago,” she said. “What’s next?”
Jake grinned. “Now that we’ve broken one bottleneck, we find the next.”
Steve leaned over. “Welcome to continuous improvement.”
The Moral of the Story
“Optimizing for cost doesn’t mean optimizing for flow. Solve the real constraint, and the system will take care of itself.”